jamology summer 2017

Driving engagement: Get your website visitors to interact with your business

No tool works harder for your business than your website. Are you making the most of its potential?

Your website is the hardest-working tool in your marketing toolbox. As we discussed in part 1, a well-designed, effective website ensures that prospects and visitors get a great first impression of your business. But that’s just the beginning. What happens after a visitor decides they want to stay and explore what you have to offer?

Good website design creates a framework for building relationships and engaging customers and prospects. In order to drive engagement, your website needs to do more than just provide information. What are your goals for your business? What do you need customers and prospects to do in order for you to meet those goals? Whether you want more business, new customers, or improved rates of customer retention or satisfaction, making it easy to interact with you on your website can help your business achieve its goals.

Because they are interactive, the calls to action, landing pages, and forms on your website can have a big impact on the user experience. Making sure these are well-designed, thoughtful, and clear will go a long way toward providing your visitors with the great experience you want them to have on your website. Here are some suggestions for making these important elements work for you, not against you.

1. Call to Action Step 1: Figure out what you want your visitors to do. Step 2: Ask them to do it. Simple, right? Yes and no. Calls to action are one of the most obvious ways to drive engagement on your website, but if they’re not designed well, you won’t be maximizing their potential.

Make sure your calls to action stand out and get noticed. Here are a few ways to effectively use calls to action to drive engagement.

Sell the benefits. What’s in it for them? Of course, you want your visitors to do something for you, but letting them know what they will gain will make it more likely that they will give you what you want.

Be clear and concise. Using too many words can dilute the message and make your request seem too complicated, which can turn off your visitors.

Use buttons. People are used to using buttons to take action, so make it easy for them. Don’t make them have to think.

Get noticed. Your button needs to stand out, but it still needs to look sophisticated and fit in well with the overall design of your site.

2. Landing Pages
A landing page is a separate page of your website designed to engage a specific audience and get them to respond to a focused call to action. It is generally not accessible from the home page or another page of your website. In order to “land” on it, users have to click on a link or type in the URL. Landing pages can be a useful part of a marketing campaign because they can be used to track traffic and conversions.

You want to design your landing page to earn the visitor’s trust and persuade them to answer your call to action. If they’ve gotten to your landing page, you’ve already captured their interest. Here are some suggestions to make the most of this valuable opportunity to connect.

Get focused. Your landing page should have a single, focused message. Clearly spell out the benefits of your offer.

Be persuasive. This is your chance to win over your visitors and get them to convert. Glowing (but authentic) testimonials from customers who have used your product or service can be very effective. Consider incorporating a promotional video. Several recent studies have shown that using video can improve conversion rates.

Capture your audience. If you link to other pages of your website, even to your home page, you risk distracting your visitors and losing them before they answer your brilliantly crafted call to action. If you’re asking them to fill out a form, keep it on your landing page.

3. Forms
Forms are one of the most common ways to capture your website visitors’ information. But designing a good form is tricky. How do you capture that valuable information in a way that won’t annoy your visitors, or, worse, drive them from your site? To maximize the chances that your form will provide a good experience, your goal should be to make it as simple as possible.

Pare down. Use as few fields as possible to request the information you want. If you find yourself wondering whether to include a field, you probably don’t need it.

Shorten it up. Avoid long words and sentences. Short, 1-to-2-word labels such as “First Name” are easier for visitors to process quickly.

Simplify your recaptcha. We now offer a simple checkbox, which is a lot more user-friendly than having to type text into a box.

Don’t forget to say thanks! Make sure to include a thank-you message that displays as soon as they’ve completed the form. End their experience with your form on a high note, and invite them to continue exploring and engaging with your website.

Your website works hard, but if it’s not also working smart, you may be missing out on valuable opportunities. Carefully crafted calls to action, focused and well-designed landing pages, and simple, uncomplicated forms help drive engagement and build relationships with prospects and customers. We can help you design a website that’s both user friendly and laser-focused on helping you achieve your goals. Contact jamGD to discuss how we can help you drive engagement and maximize your website’s marketing power.

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